DOCSLIB.ORG

The Social Credit System and China's Rule Of

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Social Credit System and China's Rule Of THE SOCIAL CREDIT SYSTEM AND CHINA’S RULE OF LAW MARIANNE VON BLOMBERG 77 05 // The Social Credit System And China’s Rule Of Law ABSTRACT In 2014, the PRC’s central government formally declared the construction of a Social Credit System (SCS) a national task. Meanwhile, government-designated localities and companies are experimenting with scoring systems for businesses, citizens and the administration. The government’s initiative introduces mechanisms for a massive aggregation and exchange of data about ‘credit subjects’, pushes for the application of such credit information in the decision-making processes in both the public and the private sector, and elevates the punishment of naming and shaming to new prominence. Its conceptual heritage is social management, a governance strategy born in the political apparatus of the PRC that does not operate with the traditional notion of law. The SCS’ potentially heavy impact, as well as its conceptual heritage in social management, begs the question of what difference it makes to the rule of law in the PRC. A legal framework for the SCS does not (yet) exist. This thesis aims to bring to light challenges that arise from the SCS for the rule of law. It does so by considering the SCS’ conceptual cradle, and further mapping what has surfaced of the SCS to date in policy and legislative documents, the commercial credit market, and local pilot projects. Drawing on this comprehensive picture of the SCS, elements which appear at odds with rule of law will be pointed out. They include a lack of legal definitions for SCS key terms such as ‘trustworthiness’, opaque procedures and possible penalties that bypass the law. Ways to integrate them into the Rechtsstaat will be considered, all of which necessitate a re-definition of what law is. Finally, the angle of social management offers a meta-social credit system as a solution to conciliate the SCS and rule of law. The question remains whether the SCS can truly solve all problems that it brings about merely by means of its own conceptual heritage, social management theory – or whether an independent organ outside of itself is indispensable. 78 Mapping China Journal // No 2 // 2018 “The internet is truly God’s gift to China” — 刘晓波 — “Sincerity, the Way of Heaven. Thinking about sincerity is the way of man.” — 孟⼦ — “This word [government] must be allowed the very broad meaning it had in the sixteenth century. ‘Government’ did not refer only to political structures or to the management of states; rather, it designated the way in which the conduct of individuals or of groups might be directed – the government of children, of souls, of communities, of the sick... To govern, in this sense, is to control the possible field of action of others.” — Michel Foucault — 1. INTRODUCTION As the PRC remains shaken by fraud, bribery, and weak implementation of laws, as well as court judgments (zhixing nan 执⾏难), Xi Jinping`s administration has taken the fight against what it summarizes as ‘trust-breaking behaviour’ to new heights. Making use of the new possibilities that digitalization has opened up, he pushes forward the concept of ‘social management’ (shehui guanli社会管理 ) to build a moderately wealthy, harmonious socialist society. Because sharing information about a person or an organization’s trustworthiness is now possible effortlessly and in real time, the consequences of (un)trustworthy behaviour can follow legal and natural persons further into other areas of their lives than ever before. Based on this, the State Council published its Planning Outline for the Construction of a Social Credit System in 2014. It shares a vision of how social management supported by big data can help the PRC`s government to achieve its goals. ‘Social credit’ (shehui xinyong社会信⽤ )¹ is a record (not necessarily a score!) of trustworthiness of an individual, a private organization, or a public organ. These so-called credit information subjects (xinyong xinxi zhuti 信⽤信息主 体) shall enjoy benefits in all areas of life if behaving in a ‘trustworthy’ manner and face restraints and punishments when engaging in ‘untrustworthy’ conduct. ‘The trustworthy shall roam everywhere under heaven, while those who breach trust shall not be able to move a single step,’ as Xi Jinping puts it (NDRC, PBOC 2017). An ambitious governance project, the Social Credit System (shehui xinyong tixi社会信⽤ 体系, hereafter SCS) is developed in several realms simultaneously. This paper will focus on the SCS development in the legal realm. Despite its major impact on every actor in society, no national legislation for the SCS 79 05 // The Social Credit System And China’s Rule Of Law exists to date. Merely the people`s congresses of some pilot provinces have passed relevant local regulations. The Party and the government have recognized that, in order to operate as an effective mechanism for raising levels of trust, the system requires a national legal framework and therefore declared the establishment of such the first of four basic principles for the acceleration of the SCS (State Council & CCP Central Committee, 2016). It is, according to a statement of the NDRC, already underway (Ohlberg et al., 2017: p.11). However, the very structure and function of the SCS as it is planned calls into question the currently existing legal system. This paper suggests that by its conceptual nature, the SCS fundamentally challenges the rule of law. The SCS does so firstly by introducing new forms of punishment parallel to what is laid down by law. In setting up institutional cooperation among government departments, Party organs, and companies, those who break trust in one department’s field of responsibility are denied services in another organ’s or company’s sphere of influence. It is the result of such partnerships, for example, that by early 2017, 6.15 million citizens have been banned from buying plane tickets (O’Meara, 2016). Further, naming and shaming as a mechanism of punishment is called for and implemented through various channels. Secondly, as the groundwork for the former, government bodies and agencies as well as companies are held to extensively collect information relevant to a (legal) person’s credibility. This encompasses the set-up of credit evaluation mechanisms to aggregate such information, which also entails the creation of rules and standards defining trustworthiness. As one’s credit status is, according to the plan, to become a central criterion for decisions on recruitment, grants of financial support for a project, and others, such rules will inevitably gain substantial importance. This underlines the accurate description of the SCS as “evolving practice of control” (Creemers, 2018: p.1). The question this work addresses is: what difference does the SCS make to the rule of law – and what difference does the rule of law make to the SCS? To explore this question, the SCS will be evaluated against the backdrop of the rule of law as it exists in the PRC. Randall Peerenboom’s application of a thin rule of law framework to the PRC will be used as the theoretical basis, in which the idea of rule of law as ‘legal systems in which the law imposes meaningful limits on state actors’ (Peerenboom, 2003: fn. 81) serves as the starting point. As to a conceptualization of the SCS, this paper will turn to its conceptual cradle, namely social management theory. Through this lens, the SCS appears as one flexible element in the whole of the government apparatus and its legislative framework may appear as a dynamic operational plan, rather than a static law providing safeguards for subjects. 80 Mapping China Journal // No 2 // 2018 2. THEORY 2.1. THIN RULE OF LAW Several attempts have been made to describe rule of law as it exists in the PRC. Donald Clarke reflects on the frequently applied, but only seldomly explicitly stated framework of PRC law analysis, which he terms the ‘Ideal Western Legal Order’ (Clarke, 2003: p.95). This model describes the end state of a legal system, in particular ‘what Western legal orders would look like if their perceived imperfections were eliminated’ (Clarke, 2003: p.96). Rule of law therein is closely related to democratic institutions, such as a parliament as the legislative body. When applied to the PRC, this model cannot but detect several flaws, which are largely due to the lack of such institutions in the PRC. It is blind to historical, cultural and political particularities of the PRC system and thus fails to accurately describe its crucial elements. Clarke further points to a possible and somewhat diametrical opposite alternative, drawing on Thomas Stephens’ (1992) work. He suggests that in the pursuit of not imposing a Western ideal on the PRC, we must radically put aside any assumption of the existence of legal institutions in the PRC. If we do not assume, for example, that a judge ought to decide independently, we can observe the nature of influences on courts in more detail. This ‘disciplinary model’ suggests replacing the notion of order as a liberal democratic one by the kind of order that exists, for example, in a family, a nursery or the army. Such a framework, however, ignores that the majority of Chinese voices do regard their institutions as equivalents to those in the West, just as the PRC Constitution and other legal documents do (Chen, 2016: p.7). A way out of this trap of theories is introduced by Peerenboom: Thin theories of rule of law avoid negating country-specific particularities and can at the same time accept that rule of law in the PRC is possible. In Peerenboom’s words, thin rule of law is the necessary requirement and foundation for thick theories; it is a concept of which thick theories are different conceptions of (Peerenboom, 2003: p.5).
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Interpreting Social Credit System in Eight Dimensions
    Interpreting Social Credit System in Eight Dimensions 2 | 八个维度 解读社会信用体系 As 2020 is the last year of the five-year plan for the construction of a social credit system (SCS) under the Plan for Establishing a Social Credit System (2014– 2020) (the "Plan") issued by the State Council, 2019 has become a crucial year to achieve the goals of the Plan. Looking back, a series of policy documents and their consultation drafts that focus on top-level design and operational practices have been introduced intensively this year, proposing methodologies and roadmaps for social credit-based market monitoring modes and a governance model from multiple dimensions, such as collection and sharing of credit information, use of credit reports, joint rewards for compliance, joint sanctions on non-compliance, identification of sanctioned targets, management of joint sanction list, market and industry access prohibition, credit restoration mechanisms, credit information security and the protection of market players’ rights. In the meantime, the impact of the SCS as a new type of social governance tool for enterprises has gradually attracted a high level of attention. 3 | 八个维度 解读社会信用体系 What is SCS? • A key component of the socialist • Credit records and databases from market economic system regulatory authorities, financial Infrastruc- institutions, credit information Nature • A key component of the social governance system tures services, etc. • Connection and data sharing among credit databases • Improve the integrity awareness • Government integrity: mainly
    [Show full text]
  • China's Youth Social Credit System May Undermine CCP Legitimacy
    China’s Youth Social Credit System May Undermine CCP Legitimacy Mark Akpaninyie THE INTRODUCTION OF A YOUTH government has actively kept records on SOCIAL CREDIT SYSTEM (青年信用) its citizens for decades to maintain social to be established in China by the year 2020 control. The youth social credit system has sent many China analysts scrambling.1 is the latest iteration of this trend. This They assert that this plan will erode already system proposes the use of credit ratings as limited rights and constrain behavior the a method to cultivate core socialist values, government defines as subversive. Some to promote integrity, and to rebuild trust analysts fear that technological advances and public welfare. and the proliferation of personal data In June 2014, the State Council issued will enable the Chinese Communist plans to begin developing the social Party (CCP) to have a wider influence in credit system.4 In collaboration with the daily lives of Chinese citizens.2 With the Communist Youth League Central the goal of incentivizing and rewarding Committee, the National Development government-dictated “good citizenship,” and Reform Commission, and the this plan allegedly represents the CCP’s People’s Bank of China, a leadership successful suppression of dissent from an group to construct a youth credit system increasingly globalized, vocal youth. This was subsequently established to begin analysis is premature, if not mistaken. conceptualizing the system. The expressed Despite youth social credit pilot programs goal of the system is to promote “socialist rolling out in major cities, there are already core values,” to “serve the growth and clear indications these programs—which development of young people to promote use volunteerism, technology, and mass the construction of social integrity,” and surveillance to collect information on to “provide a wealth of public welfare citizens and rate their behavior—may fail.
    [Show full text]
  • Beneath the Surface of China's Social Credit System
    Beneath the surface of China’s Social Credit System Author: Jacqueline Olsen Malmö University Supervisor: Mikael Spång Subject: Human Rights Bachelor thesis, spring 2020 1 Abstract China has developed a technological Social Credit System that monitors, collects, and analyses behavioural data from citizens and enterprises. The system categorises them trustworthy or untrustworthy according to their behaviour. This paper aims to investigate the technological elements of China’s Social Credit System and analyse its social functions. In doing so, I will address the human rights implications following from the system. The thesis uses a content analysis method and draws on three theoretical studies, including, dataveillance, social sorting and neoliberalism and subjectivity. The study shows that China intends to continue investing in immoral technological elements; might succeed to govern citizens in self-governing; and prioritises the system in front of scarce human rights regulations. The conclusion holds that China intends to continue developing and strengthening the Social Credit System to enhance the behaviour of their society, regardless of some human rights implications, to reach their desired outcome. Keywords: Social Credit System, Social functions, Technology, Human rights Word count: 13 985 2 Abbreviations AI – Artificial Intelligence API – Application Programming Interface BSN – Blockchain Service Network CCTV – Closed-Circuit Television CPC – Communist Party of China ICCPR – International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Ifri – Institute francais des relations international PBOC – People’s Bank of China PCI – Public Credit Information PRC – People’s Republic of China SCS – Social Credit System SMT – Statistical Machine Translation UDHR - Universal Declaration on Human Rights 5G – Fifth Generation 3 Table of contents Abstract……………………………………………………………………………….....…2 Abbreviations…………………………………………………………………………..…..3 Table of contents………………………………………………………………………..….4 1.
    [Show full text]
  • The Xinjiang Detention Centers: a Perversion of Jeremy Bentham's
    The Xinjiang Detention Centers: A Perversion of Jeremy Bentham’s Ideal Panoptic Structure or its Stark Reality? by Jasper Orille Hogue A Thesis Submitted to Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, Nova Scotia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for an Honours Degree in Political Science March, 2020 Copyright Jasper Orille Hogue Approved: _______________________ Dr. Ronald Landes Supervisor Date: ___________________ Abstract The Xinjiang Detention Centers: A Perversion of Jeremy Bentham’s Ideal Panoptic Structure or its Stark Reality? By Jasper Orille Hogue Abstract: The modern convergence of technology and social control has met its current peak in Xinjiang, China, as millions of ethnic and religious minorities are targeted, confined, and reformed in the region’s camp detention system. In an effort to contain social crisis and reinforce critical control over the region, the Chinese government has introduced harsh surveillance measures purposed to alter the region’s culture and identity. The design and purpose of this immense program is not a new structure to mankind however, as English philosopher Jeremy Bentham had developed a precursor of this system in the form of the Panopticon in the late 18th century. Tracing the development and structure of Bentham’s theoretical concept, it can be shown that the current detention system in Xinjiang is not a perversion of Bentham’s design, but it’s practical implementation in the modern surveillance state. March 28, 2020. 1 Introduction The existence of detention centres for various minority populations in the Chinese northwest region of Xinjiang was fully revealed in 2017. However, the totality of the system was not clear until the middle months of 2018, and the structure of the system itself was not released until the inner documents outlining the layout, methods, and principle purpose of the centres were leaked in late 2019.
    [Show full text]
  • “Individualism in Modern China: the Social Credit Issue”
    Department of Political Science Chair of Sociology “Individualism in Modern China: The Social Credit Issue” THESIS SUPERVISOR CANDIDATE PROF. Antonio La Spina Valentino Grassi Student No. 078402 Politics, Philosophy and Economics B.A. 2017/2018 Academic Year 1 Index 1. Introduction 2. The concept of Individualism and its Importance for Social Management and SCS System 2.1. Western Individualistic Theories: Modernist, Interactionist and Discourse Approach 2.1.1. Modernist theorists. 2.1.2. Interactionist theorists. 2.1.3. Discourse theorists. 2.2. Alexis de Tocqueville’s conception of Individualism 2.3. Chinese Individualism 3. Social Management and Forms of Social Control 3.1. Social Management: the key concept to improve people’s livelihood 3.2. Xi Jinping reform process as a key tool to consolidate the operational capacity of the CCP 3.3. Neo-socialist approach to social management 3.4. Previous Social Engineering Programs 3.4.1. People’s Commune 3.4.2. Dang’an: the predecessor of Social Credit System? 3.4.3. Hukou - Housing Registration System 4. Social Credit System 4.1. Origins of Credit Score System 4.2. Private and Governmental Data Sources 4.3. The Core of China’s Social Credit System: Companies Regulations 4.4. SCS Implementation: Media Communication and Criticisms 4.5. SCS Implementation: The Rongcheng Case 5. Conclusions 2 1. Introduction The aim of this dissertation is to analyse the current and future implementation of a new and unique system of social and market control: the Social Credit Score system (heretofore referred to as SCS). Especially in the last decade, China represented the most interesting actor on the global scenario for many reasons.
    [Show full text]
  • AI, China, Russia, and the Global Order: Technological, Political, Global, and Creative Perspectives
    Approved For Public Release AI, China, Russia, and the Global Order: Technological, Political, Global, and Creative Perspectives A Strategic Multilayer Assessment (SMA) Periodic Publication December 2018 Contributing Authors: Shazeda Ahmed (UC Berkeley), Natasha E. Bajema (NDU), Samuel Bendett (CNA), Benjamin Angel Chang (MIT), Rogier Creemers (Leiden University), Chris C. Demchak (Naval War College), Sarah W. Denton (George Mason University), Jeffrey Ding (Oxford), Samantha Hoffman (MERICS), Regina Joseph (Pytho LLC), Elsa Kania (Harvard), Jaclyn Kerr (LLNL), Lydia Kostopoulos (LKCYBER), James A. Lewis (CSIS), Martin Libicki (USNA), Herbert Lin (Stanford), Kacie Miura (MIT), Roger Morgus (New America), Rachel Esplin Odell (MIT), Eleonore Pauwels (United Nations University), Lora Saalman (EastWest Institute), Jennifer Snow (USSOCOM), Laura Steckman (MITRE), Valentin Weber (Oxford) Opening Remarks provided by: Brig Gen Alexus Grynkewich (JS J39), Lawrence Freedman (King’s College, London) Editor: Nicholas D. Wright (Intelligent Biology) Integration Editor: Mariah C. Yager (JS/J39/SMA/NSI) This white paper represents the views and opinions of the contributing authors. This white paper does not represent official USG policy or position. Approved For Public Release Approved For Public Release Disclaimers This white paper represents the views and opinions of the contributing authors. This white paper does not represent official USG policy or position. Mention of any commercial product in this paper does not imply DoD endorsement or recommendation for or against the use of any such product. No infringement on the rights of the holders of the registered trademarks is intended. The appearance of external hyperlinks does not constitute endorsement by the United States Department of Defense (DoD) of the linked websites, or the information, products or services contained therein.
    [Show full text]
  • Econsoc 21-1
    Volume 21 · Number 1 · November 2019 economic econsoc.mpifg.de sociology _the european electronic newsletter 21.1 Note from the editor Content 1 Note from the editor The Brave New World The Brave New World of Big Data by Akos Rona-Tas of Big Data 4 Aadhaar: Uniquely Indian Dystopia? by Reetika Khera Akos Rona-Tas 13 Biometric IDs and the remaking of the Indian (welfare) state by Ursula Rao 22 Multiple social credit systems in China by Chuncheng Liu 33 Credit Scoring in the United States by Barbara Kiviat his issue is organized around plate readers can follow cars in 43 Bringing Context back into privacy the theme of Big Data as our many big cities and highways, regulation and beyond. About limitation on new social world, one that while cameras in public spaces re- purpose as an (old) response to (new) data Thas been taking shape thanks to three cord every second they see. Many challenges important recent advances in infor- of these sensors work without us by Karoline Krenn mation technology, all accelerated in even noticing them, like high reso- the last few years. lution satellite photos that can now 54 OpEd First, there has been an enor- deliver resolutions of 30 centime- by Jenny Andersson mous increase in our capacity to ters, while others, like our own gather and transmit data. Sensor digital cameras, require our active 56 Book reviews and communication technology al- participation by taking the pictures lows the inexpensive collection of and then uploading the digital im- Editor vast quantities of information, aid- ages.
    [Show full text]
  • Disciplining of a Society Social Disciplining and Civilizing Processes in Contemporary China
    Disciplining of a Society Social Disciplining and Civilizing Processes in Contemporary China Thomas Heberer August 2020 Disciplining of a Society Social Disciplining and Civilizing Processes in Contemporary China Thomas Heberer August 2020 disciplining of a society Social Disciplining and Civilizing Processes in Contemporary China about the author Thomas Heberer is Senior Professor of Chinese Politics and Society at the Insti- tute of Political Science and the Institute of East Asian Studies at the University Duisburg-Essen in Germany. He is specializing on issues such as political, social and institutional change, entrepreneurship, strategic groups, the Chinese developmen- tal state, urban and rural development, political representation, corruption, ethnic minorities and nationalities’ policies, the role of intellectual ideas in politics, field- work methodology, and political culture. Heberer is conducting fieldwork in China on almost an annual basis since 1981. He recently published the book “Weapons of the Rich. Strategic Action of Private Entrepreneurs in Contemporary China” (Singapore, London, New York: World Scientific 2020, co-authored by G. Schubert). On details of his academic oeuvre, research projects and publications see his website: ht tp:// uni-due.de/oapol/. iii disciplining of a society Social Disciplining and Civilizing Processes in Contemporary China about the ash center The Roy and Lila Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation advances excellence and innovation in governance and public policy through research, edu- cation, and public discussion. By training the very best leaders, developing power- ful new ideas, and disseminating innovative solutions and institutional reforms, the Center’s goal is to meet the profound challenges facing the world’s citizens.
    [Show full text]
  • Disenchanting Trust: Instrumental Reason, Algorithmic Governance, and China's Emerging Social Credit System
    Media and Communication (ISSN: 2183–2439) 2021, Volume 9, Issue 2, Pages 140–149 DOI: 10.17645/mac.v9i2.3806 Article Disenchanting Trust: Instrumental Reason, Algorithmic Governance, and China’s Emerging Social Credit System Sheng Zou International Institute, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA; E-Mail: [email protected] Submitted: 30 October 2020 | Accepted: 25 January 2021 | Published: 6 April 2021 Abstract Digital technologies have provided governments across the world with new tools of political and social control. The devel- opment of algorithmic governance in China is particularly alarming, where plans have been released to develop a digital Social Credit System (SCS). Still in an exploratory stage, the SCS, as a collection of national and local pilots, is framed officially as an all-encompassing project aimed at building trust in society through the regulation of both economic and social behav- iors. Grounded in the case of China’s SCS, this article interrogates the application of algorithmic rating to expanding areas of everyday life through the lens of the Frankfurt School’s critique of instrumental reason. It explores how the SCS reduces the moral and relational dimension of trust in social interactions, and how algorithmic technologies, thriving on a moral economy characterized by impersonality, impede the formation of trust and trustworthiness as moral virtues. The algorith- mic rationality underlying the SCS undermines the ontology of relational trust, forecloses its transformative power, and disrupts social and civic interactions that are non-instrumental in nature. Re-reading and extending the Frankfurt School’s theorization on reason and the technological society, especially the works of Horkheimer, Marcuse, and Habermas, this article reflects on the limitations of algorithmic technologies in social governance.
    [Show full text]
  • Orwell's Nightmare: China's Social Credit System
    Orwell’s Nightmare: China’s Social Credit System “Nothing that he does is indifferent. His friendships, his relaxations, his behavior towards his wife and children, the expression of his face when he is alone, the words he mutters in sleep, even the characteristic movements of his body, are all jealously scrutinized. Not only any actual misdemeanor, but any eccentricity, however small, any change of habits, any nervous mannerism that could possibly be the symptom of an inner struggle, is certain to be detected. He has no freedom of choice in any direction whatever.” George Orwell, 19841 Arriving in Shanghai last December, I struck up an unexpected conversation with my taxi driver. Stuck in traffic, the driver pointed to a prominent electronic scoreboard on the side of the road displaying car plate numbers and asked if I knew what it was. Interpreting my silence as an invitation for soliloquy, he said: “If you honk your horn in Shanghai, your car plate number will be displayed in one of those electronic scoreboards. This is to publicly shame you.” I had no clue that Shanghai had, as of 2007, prohibited honking, ostensibly to reduce noise level in the city.2 I asked, “what happens if you have to honk to avoid accidents?’ The driver shrugged, “There is nothing you can do. You just have to be patient and wait for others. But you cannot honk, unless you want to pay a fine.” He bemoaned that the penalty for honking used to be 200 RMB (about $30), but with the new technical system in place since last September, additional penalties would kick in.
    [Show full text]
  • Seeing Like an Authoritarian State
    The Peter A. Allard School of Law Allard Research Commons Faculty Publications Allard Faculty Publications 11-1-2019 Seeing Like an Authoritarian State Cristie Ford Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.allard.ubc.ca/fac_pubs Part of the Law Commons Citation Details Cristie Ford, "Seeing Like an Authoritarian State" in Liav Orgad & Wessel Reijers, eds, A Dystopian Future? The Rise of Social Credit Systems (2019) Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies Global Citizenship Governance, European University Institute Working Papers RSCAS 2019/94, 15-17. This Working Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the Allard Faculty Publications at Allard Research Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Allard Research Commons. RSCAS 2019/94 Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies Global Citizenship Governance A Dystopian Future? The Rise of Social Credit Systems Edited by Liav Orgad and Wessel Reijers European University Institute Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies Global Citizenship Governance A Dystopian Future? The Rise of Social Credit Systems Edited by Liav Orgad and Wessel Reijers EUI Working Paper RSCAS 2019/94 This text may be downloaded only for personal research purposes. Additional reproduction for other purposes, whether in hard copies or electronically, requires the consent of the author(s), editor(s). If cited or quoted, reference should be made to the full name of the author(s), editor(s), the title, the working paper, or other series, the year and the publisher.
    [Show full text]
  • Business and Human Rights
    BUSINESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS Findings • As the Chinese Communist Party and government engage in increasingly egregious human rights violations, domestic and international businesses are increasingly at risk of complicity in abuses committed by the Chinese government. Of particular concern are: reports that companies are involved in the govern- ment’s suppression of ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), including through the use of forced labor; companies’ complicity in government surveillance of individuals throughout China; and companies engaging in censorship on behalf of Chinese authorities. • In the XUAR, the actions of the Party and government may constitute crimes against humanity according to scholars and rights groups, and companies that work in the region are at great risk of complicity in those crimes. Experts have docu- mented the rapid expansion of a network of mass internment camps in which authorities have arbitrarily detained over a million individuals from predominantly Muslim ethnic minor- ity groups. Commercial entities have been directly involved in the construction of these camps and supplied them with a wide range of goods and services. The company Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology, in particular, has supplied surveillance systems to the camps as part of a public-private partnership with XUAR authorities. U.S.-based firms such as Intel, Ambarella, and Nvidia reportedly continue to supply Hikvision with critical components. According to a March 2019 report, the California State Teachers’ Retirement System and the New York State Teachers’ Retirement System both continued to own Hikvision stock. • The Commission observed numerous reports this past year of forced labor associated with government repression of ethnic minority groups in the XUAR.
    [Show full text]